Topic:
Louis Gordon Moffat (nee Kettle) (1881-1980)

Topic type:

Louis Gordon Kettle was the grandaughter of Gustavus Ferdinand Von Tempsky (1828-1868), Major in the Forest Rangers. Story by Debbie McCauley.

Louis was born in Napier on 17 April 1881 (date from death registration). Her parents were Nathanial and Lena Kettle (nee Von Tempsky) who married in Waipukurau on 22 June 1880. Lena was the daughter of Gustavus Ferdinand Von Tempsky (1828-1868), Major in the Forest Rangers. Von Tempsky was involved in the Tauranga Campaign and was killed in Taranaki in 1868.

The following photographs of Louis and her mother Lena were taken in Katikati by Emily Surtees in 1900:

Louis Gordon Kettle (1900)

Louis Gordon Kettle and her mother Lena (1900)

Four years after these photographs were taken, Louis married Captain Charles Arthur Beauchamp Pickard Hawkins in Napier (reg.1904/7051). Their marriage was reported in the New Zealand Herald on 16 February 1904:

At Napier Cathedral on Thursday Miss j Louis Gordon Kettle, eldest daughter of Mr. N. Kettle, and a granddaughter of the late Major Von Tempsky, was married to Mr. A. C. Pickard-Hawkins. of Southampton, England, late of the 11th Hussars., and only son of the late Rev. C. E. Hawkins, of Grafton, England. The young couple leave in March for England, where they take up their residence (p. 6).

Charles served in the South African War and during World War I (Service Numbers: 735 & 11/256). Louis and Charles had three children together:

In 1923 (reg. 1923/10412) she married Colonel Samuel Alexander Moffat (1878-1948). Samuel was born in Comely Park Place, Gallowgate, Glasgow, Scotland, In 1888 he emigrated to the USA with his parents and siblings, becoming a US citizen in 1910 and lived in New York City. Samuel had sailed to New Zealand from Vancouver in Canada.

Samuel and Louis, along with her children, sailed for America on the RMS Niagara, arriving in Seattle on 1 December 1923. They lived in New Jersey.

Her mother Lena died in Napier on 29 March 1938 (reg. 1938/20365).

Samuel died in New Jersey, USA, on 16 October 1948. After his death, Louis returned to New Zealand.

Louis died in Havlock North on 10 August 1980 (reg. 1980/37694) and was buried in the Havlock North Cemetery.